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Living in interesting times does not automatically make one a gifted writer. Ursula Mahlendorf's memoirs are not always easy reading. The merit of the book is that it gives us a firsthand account in English of growing up in the Third Reich. Mahlendorf was an active member of the Bund deutscher Mädel and was a student at a Nazi-teachers' training school. On top of that she is also a Heimatvertriebene from Strehlen (Strzelin) in Silesia who had to adapt herself to the (new) German Federal Republic. The book makes interesting reading for students in German studies and researchers of the period.
The book can be divided in two major parts, followed by an epilogue. The first part starts in 1929 with her birth and ends in May 1945 with the German defeat. Central themes in this section are her family, school and experiences in the youth movement.
The second part of the book deals with her post-war life. This includes her return to Polish-occupied Silesia and forced migration to West-Germany in the Spring of 1946. Important themes are her adventures as a Heimatvertriebene, her problems in adapting to West-German life and her Werdegang in school and university.
In the epilogue, the author deals intensely with her psychological problems and depressions and tries to connect these to the events and traumas in her life. This is a short but moving part of the book. It shows how devastating growing up in a totalitarian dictatorship can be.
All chapters start with a summary of the major political events of the period Mahlendorf is going to deal with. There are some strange mistakes. For example, she blames the Nazis for the Reichstagbrand, which is a rather outdated or at least a very contested point of view. She calls Der Stürmer an SS-magazine, and she states that the Potsdam-conference ended with...